Keiko Mitsuragi
Keiko Mitsuragi D. O. B: '1st January, 1992 '''Gender: '''Female '''Marital Status: '''Single '''Last Known Location: 'Tokyo, Japan 'Occupation: '''Drummer for Readysteady [POW!?] '''Power (If DNA Alternate): '''None. Personality A self professed bad girl, Keiko was always the sort of girl growing up who self-respecting parents told their children to avoid at all costs. She came from what the average Japanese person would consider to be a dishonourable family: her father's side had a very long history of working for the Japanese organised crime syndicate, the Yakuza. Keiko grew up with kids liking to whisper things behind her back. Girls loved to talk and the guys.. well, they were a different story altogether. Pick on the scrawny Yakuza girl, act like a badass to your friends. So it's somewhat safe to say that she didn't exactly have the most.. uneventful childhood. Rather than try and be everything that her father wasn't, Keiko took the more conventional approach of living up to his name. Before finding fame with the band, she was one more stunt away from getting thrown out of high school. She smoked, experimented with drugs, got into fights with anyone who looked at her the wrong way.. she was a run away train and it was only a matter of time until someone got flattened. Meeting Izumi, Rina, and Megumi changed everything. They didn't judge her for where she came from or what she'd done. They just liked that she could beat on drums pretty hard, and they became fast friends. Once things started to get serious, Keiko cleaned up her act.. but that doesn't mean she's forgotten everything she learned whilst growing up. Keiko could best be described as spunky and street smart. She's always been very athletic and something of a tomboy. The fact that no girl wanted anything to do with her as a friend when she was growing up might very well have had something to do with that. She chose to run with the 'bad boys' instead, and to fit in with them, at times she had to fight to earn their respect. As it happened, she quickly discovered that she had something of a propensity for violence. Getting into fights was more than just thrilling, it was oddly.. satisfying. She's always had a bit of a quick temper and prefers to let her fists (or drum sticks) do the talking for her when she gets mad. Keiko is certainly the firebrand of the group and usually when a conflict arises, she's the one who either starts it, or settles it one way or the other. Despite her temperament and occasional violent tendencies, she does have a few redeeming qualities. She's as loyal a friend as you could ask for. Once you get into her inner circle, she'll trust you with anything. Along with Rei, she constitutes the fire and drive of the band. She's also somewhat of a shrewd negotiator and has inherited a certain degree of business acumen from her father. Thus, any time the band has to deal with the greasy record label executives, Keiko is usually the one to do the talking. She can be rather intimidating when she wants to be.. so it's no surprise the band have got a rather lucrative contract with their label. History 'Family Relations: *Tadashi Mitsuragi - father, former yakuza enforcer. *Ayeko Mitsuragi - mother, nurse. 'Other Significant People:' *Rei Suzuki -'' band leader, vocals and rhythm guitar.'' *Izumi Suzuki - bandmate, lead guitar. *Rina Akatsuka - bandmate, bassist. *Megumi Takahashi - former bandmate, friend. 'Story So Far:' Keiko wasn't exactly the poster girl for a happy child hood growing up. Her father had been in the Yakuza since before she was born. It was something of a family legacy, really. The Mitsuragi family had been part of the bōryokudan for over a century, one way or the other. People in Japan had over the years learned that generally speaking, you treated the Yakuza like a wild animal. Stay away from it, don't give it any reason to hurt you and maybe, just maybe, it'll leave you be. And for the most part it was true. Folks who lived an honest living tended to stay clear. But that didn't mean they weren't still afraid of the Yakuza. Thus, Keiko's early years were shaped mostly by her fathers reputation hanging over her head at all times. Despite it all, she never found any resentment for him. Some people considered him to be a violent sociopath, cruel and utterly without mercy whenever he was sent out to enforce the will of the local crime boss, but that side of him was never taken home. Keiko was much closer to him than she ever was to her mother, a rather timid shrew of a woman who, although she loved her husband and her daughter, didn't exactly have much to contribute to the family business. Even throughout grade school, Keiko had problems. Everybody know who she was. Her father was high rank in the Yakuza, and they lived in a small prefecture in Kyoto. You didn't live there for a few years without knowing who Tadashi Mitsuragi was. Everybody knows how cruel children can be; they've been kids once themselves, after all. Keiko's school life in the beginning was a lonely one. Children were told by their parents to keep well away from her, so they did. The girls liked to gossip and the guys tested their courage from time to time by shoving her around. She quickly came to despise the names they thought up for her, Yakuza Princess being the worst title of all. As she began to grow older, though, towards her teens.. she started to act out. If people were determined to dislike her just because of who her father was, then she'd rather they feared her than bullied her. So she became something of a chip off the old block. Her father taught her everything she needed to look after herself. When was thirteen, a row with a particularly bitchy girl in her class wound up with Keiko stubbing out a cigarette in her eye, blinding her. She would have been thrown out of school or even arrested were it not for her fathers connections. This began her fascination with violence. Rather than feel any particular remorse for what she'd done, she had enjoyed it. The girl had been tormenting her since she was a kid, and now she'd finally shut her up. After that, nobody wanted to screw around with her. She fell in with a bad crowd, a bunch of misfits coming from similar backgrounds. The kind of families that provoked much hand wringing and whispers of dishonour. Whilst dating a guy who barely turned up to school most of the time when she was fourteen, he introduced her to the drums. It turned out she had quite the natural talent for it and quickly became an enthusiast. It served as an outlet for all the anger and violence that she felt, and she very much needed something to keep her grounded. Eventually, she had to move away from her birthplace of Kyoto. Her father had done his time with the Yakuza and considered himself finished. Of course, nobody ever just left that sort of group. If he stuck around in Kyoto, he knew it'd only be a matter of time til they were knocking on his door asking him to come back. So, they moved to Tokyo when Keiko was 16. There, she would meet the three girls who would form Readysteady [ POW! ] with her soon after. At her new school, nobody really knew that Keiko had been a violent outcast. She became fast friends with the shy and reclusive Izumi Suzuki, something of a guitar prodigy, and her younger sister Rei, and soon befriended a talented singer by the name of Megumi Takahashi. Megumi's best friend, Rina Akatsuka, was also a talented musician in her own right, playing the bass. All of the girls shared a love of rock music and eventually, things just sort of came together. The band was formed with Megumi on vocals, Izumi providing lead guitar, Rina providing bass, Keiko on drums, and Rei.. well, Rei was their official groupie. They started out fairly small. Rehearsal sessions in Keiko's apartment when her folks were out, recording an EP on an indie label. They started playing small shows here and there in local teen clubs and slowly but surely their music began to gain traction. Izumi was an amazing guitarist and her solos quickly became the stuff of legend. Indie legend, at least. Just when they were threatening to make it big and had just got signed to a major label, tragedy struck. Megumi was attacked by an obsessed fan who managed to climb on stage at one of their shows. The singer's vocal chords were slashed, and although she was able to recover her speech, her ability to sing was forever taken away from her. This event has always haunted Keiko since. She'd always considered it her duty to look after the other girls in the band, and she'd been particularly close to Megumi. Behind her drum kit, though, she hadn't been able to get up in time to stop the attack. She nearly killed the crazy bitch responsible for it and had to be restrained by the rest of the band members. At the time it looked as though they were finished with no singer, until Rei stepped in to take her place. Although two years younger than the rest of the girls, she proved herself to be an extremely talented singer and was the perfect replacement given that she already got on so well with the rest of the band. Strong armed negotiation on her part managed to keep their record deal, and they set about producing their debut mainstream album. It was a critical and commercial success, and they've been dreaming bigger and bigger ever since. Miscellaneous *'Drums:' Keiko uses a variety of different equipment but she prefers Negi Drums. She's also known to occasionally use a set of pink Pearl Masters series premium maple drums. She's fond of heavy, reinforced drum sticks which fit perfectly with her fast paced style. *'Languages:' Keiko primarily speaks Japanese, but has been slowly but surely been learning English from Rei and Izumi. *'Cooking:' She's known as one of the best cooks amongst the four girls and her ramen dishes are legendary when they all get together. She's also particularly good at desserts. *'Piano:' In addition to her skills as a drummer, Keiko has a certain degree of talent with the piano. She had lessons when she was a child and is responsible for the keyboard sections in the bands songs. 'Theme Songs:' *Break Stuff by Limp Bizkit *Killing In The Name Of by Rage Against The Machine *Ten Thousand Fists by Disturbed 'Trackers:' *Keiko's Thread Tracker Category:Original Characters (Civilians)